Patti Smith: Just KidsI'm not much of a fan of either of the artists featured (Patti Smith and Robert Mappelthorpe), but the book is very compelling taking me into a new world and time that I was not really aware of. (***)

Interesting Thoughts

May 10, 2017

My mostly unspoken but enacted commitments, to the best of my ability, to my teenage daughter, are that I commit to, with every ounce of my soul:

Be a warrior for you. I’ll go into any battle beside you and whenever necessary in front of you without a second thought.

Be a human for you. I’ll make mistakes and admit it when I do.

Be a listener for you. I’ll be ready when you’re ready to tell me what you want and sometimes even before you are (at which point I’ll refer you to the “human” entry above). I commit that I won’t try to fix it EVERY time (and when I do I’ll again refer you to the “human” entry above).

Be a joke for you. It’s one of my God given gifts and from God’s hands to our ears, I will share my rather weird view of the world and play off yours too as we laugh like crazy.

Be a teacher for you. Whatever I have learned and un-learned it’s there for you, any time you want it.

Be “not so serious” for you. I will to remind you that 97% of the time, it’s just not worth taking things so seriously and won’t judge you even when you do take seemingly smaller things really seriously…and even maybe laugh about it afterwards.

Be a cheerleader for you. I will share the fulfillment and joy I get in seeing the beauty of you competing in sports and when you succeed I’ll bust out the pompoms. I love that you love to win and compete.

Be a shoulder for you. When you need to cry and my shoulder is the one you need most or any other times it’s available…always.

Be authentic for you. I promise I’ll cry when I’m happy, sad, hurt, joyous, etc. and won’t fight to hold it in.

Be a reminder for you. I know you’re strong just as you are and so am I, I’ll remind us of that so we can get through things together.

Be a hug for you. Need I say more?

Be a model for you. I’ll teach you to succeed, not succeed “like a man”…that’s garbage.

Be an embarrassment for you. You have a Dad who is a goofball at times so I will almost certainly embarrass you, but you’re used to it right?

Be in the background for you. I commit to let you live your life, neither of us are happy when I try to control everything.

Be a pain for you. Yes, there are times when I’m going to draw boundaries, say no, call you out and when I do I will supply with a time honored source of rebellion for teenagers. If you aren’t pissed off at me on a semi-regular basis, I’m not doing my job.

Be a student for you. I’m willing to learn new things and realize you can teach me some of them.

Be realistic for you. You are a teenager and I promise not to give you the “back in my days” bs or the “you’re all so entitled” bs, I know it’s harder in some real ways to be a teenager these days and I know you’re a teenager and it’s unfair to paint with an old or irresponsible brush.

Be present for you. I commit that I’ll do the work when I’m not with you so that when I am with you I am.

Be a perspective for you. I’m willing to share when I’ve been through tough things that might be like what you are. I’m willing to remind you when you’ve gotten through tough things as you go through them.

Be a debater for you. Let’s argue about things going on in the world, it’s worth it.

Be a believer for you. If you believe strongly enough in something and it’s at odds with the prevailing, broken point of view, I’ll back you…100%. If you’re following just to follow, expect us to go back to the previous line.

Be a believer in you. I believe in you 100%.

Be a truth teller for you. Even when it’s really uncomfortable I’ll do it.

Be a Dad for you. More than anything else, the one unchanging fact is that from the moment you were born, I’m your Dad and will be that until the day I die.

Qatari leadership is visionary in that they realize they need to look beyond the oil and gas economy. It’s a fascinating study in the intersection of business and humanity. There is a lot culturally to break through to really shift to an entrepreneurial mindset for the investors and entrepreneurs to thrive but the vision and energy is there.

It was really invigorating to be a present part of a 20-30 year vision. So much of what I’m surrounded with in business has a less than 5 year horizon. That longer term vision gives importance and space for achieving lasting and meaningful impact.

It was so rewarding to see the researchers light up as they saw the possibilities roll out of how their years of work, their babies essentially, could be taken to market successfully by entrepreneurs who care. I was totally blessed to bring my piece of the puzzle in helping them with their presentations.

The long term vision is to help shift the researchers into a commercialization oriented entrepreneurial mindset ala Silicon Valley.

It will be fascinating to see what comes of it. More to come.

And, here are a few quite random reflections from my trip to Doha, Qatar:

There is construction EVERYWHERE. So much so that they are actually running out of SAND! So they are fighting against illegal importation of sand….in the desert. They are building world class facilities and have a TON of capacity to fill.

I met the ONLY couple in the world that is a marriage between a Qatari and Norwegian and they were delightful. In certain cases, there is an approval process for Qatari citizens to marry different nationalities.

I had a heartwarming experience when a totally likeable and brilliant engineer/researcher pulled me aside at an event and told me that I had given him the incredible gift of teaching him “how to laugh”. My rather big and full laughter is unusual and he loved to laugh along with me and others as we joked around.

I LOVED the times when there was singing over the loudspeaker to remind those who observe it to pray. I honestly wish that we could somehow do something like that here that would be free of denomination or even belief in God (plenty of my atheist friends meditate). A reminder a few times a day for all of us to pause and reflect in some way would have a substantial beneficial impact.

There is a GIANT yellow bear at the airport. I found out it cost almost $7 Million. That’s one expensive relative of Winnie the Pooh. I only pray that they don’t open a honey store in the airport.

Their salt shakers are much better than ours because yield per shake is much higher (or put less business-y their salt comes out of the shakers faster with more of it each time I shook it).

They use Kleenex as napkins. It took some getting used to but ultimately it’s good because it’s more eco-friendly as I didn’t find myself using more of them. Oddly, for whatever reason I became more careful about how I ate so as to minimize my use of them.

Not surprisingly, without a shared pop cultural reference point my blue ribbon comedic material at times is met with confusing looks and crickets rather than laughter.

It’s hot. Like REALLY hot. I would go for a walk at 5:30 am and it felt perfect, by 6:30 am my walk ended luckily because it was already steaming hot. One upside is the AC in all the buildings I went to was phenomenal!

I’m not particularly surprised by this but was comfortably reassured. Parents there love their young daughters as much as I did/do, that made me really happy.

I played hoops with an international key and three point line on a wider court. And oh my GAWD it was a lot harder to do. Shots that normally drop were falling well, well short. (Oh and as a bonus the court was blue so I kinda felt like I was playing football at Boise State.)

Finally, I was reminded again how to be awake and aware to visitors to the USA as I walk around throughout my day. San Francisco in particular brings a confluence of all types of different cultures and perspectives. I was treated wonderfully while I was there.

It reminded me to be a little more patient, tolerant and kind and that my friend is, indeed, what is all about.